NSW crime rate significantly decreases, statistics show

The number of crime victims in NSW significantly decreased last year compared with previous years, with physical assault, threats and household crime showing the highest rates of reduction.

The latest report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) found the number of people who experienced break-ins, attempted break-ins and malicious damage to property between July 2012 and June 2013 was significantly lower than in 2008-2009.

The rate of household crime has decreased markedly in the past five years. Photo: Steve Cassell

“I'm pleasantly surprised there's a general movement down from the previous data,” said ABS Director of the National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics, William Milne.

“Almost all household crimes were lower compared with 2008-09, and that included attempted break-ins, motor vehicle theft, theft from motor vehicles and malicious property damage.”

The rate of victimisation in attempted break-ins dropped to 1.6 per cent last year from 3.2 per cent in 2008-09. Malicious property damage had one of the highest rates of change, with nearly 170,000 households (6 per cent) estimated to have experienced some form of destruction in 2011-2012, versus just over 280,000 (10 per cent) five years ago.

The number of motor vehicle thefts nearly halved in the past five years, even though the rates also correlated with an increase in the number of incidents reported to police - 94 per cent of car thefts were reported last year, compared with 82 per cent five years ago.

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“The most talked-about hypothesis is that we're largely becoming a more secure society,” said the research manager at the Australian Institute of Criminology, Jason Payne, citing the installation of security cameras and burglar alarms.

While the rate of traditional crimes had generally gone down, Mr Milne warned that the data did not reflect new and emerging crimes such as electronic credit-card fraud or online scams, which are difficult to monitor.

“We also ought not be too quick to make judgment about the overall decline in crime if, in fact, the decline is representing a shift of offenders into different methods and avenues of criminal activity,” he said.

The number of assault victims, including physical assaults, face-to-face and non-face-to-face threats had also lowered in the past year from 5.3 per cent in 2011-2012 to 4.4 per cent the next year, an ABS spokeswoman said.

Half of all victims of physical assault in NSW had experienced a single incident of attack, ranging from being punched, slapped, beaten, shot, stabbed or hit deliberately by a vehicle. Some 19 per cent of the population had experienced being assaulted six times or more.

It was more common for women to be repeatedly physically assaulted than men.